Person receiving a massage

A fantastic way to enhance healing and growth in your life is to do body work of some type while you are engaging in psychotherapy. Examples of body work are chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, energy work such as Healing Hands of Reiki. I have found this combination to be very powerful for growth, change and resolution of chronic physical and emotional issues.

Why is this combination beneficial? The body is the mirror of the unconscious. Bodywork can bring emotional issues to the surface as body structures are realigned or shifted into proper places. Psychotherapy may be needed to process the feelings that emerge. Conversely, psychotherapy work produces changes in the body field , which may need assistance through bodywork.

For example: one gentleman did a lot of emotional work around depression. Psychotherapy helped him to change attitudes, beliefs and better process feelings. However, he was still standing, sitting and walking around with a depressed posture. Adding structured body work (Rolfing) helped him to stand taller, not slump and overall have a physical presence that reflected his emotional well-being.

The tandem process will look different for each individual. It may involve separate sessions of bodywork and psychotherapy during the same period of weeks or months, combined sessions with both a bodyworker and psychotherapist present, or perhaps concentrating on psychotherapy for a period of time and then concentrating on bodywork.

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